Conference: Conference Support for Developmental Biology of the Sea Urchin XXI Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts October 2012

一个受精卵发育成一个完全成熟的人依赖于所有动物都保存的基本基因工具包。确定工具包的组成部分并了解它们的功能不仅对理解人类发展至关重要，而且对理解我们在自然界中发现的身体形态的多样性也至关重要。人类与海胆共享许多基因，包括那些在胚胎发育过程中开启和关闭的基因。因此，海胆、海星、海鞘和其他海洋无脊椎动物是研究发育的有力模型，因为它们的胚胎在母体外迅速发育，也因为它们与脊椎动物和人类关系密切。这次会议汇集了一个由科学家和学生组成的国际小组，他们利用海胆、海星和其他无脊椎动物来研究基本的机制和进化。本次会议汇集了应用尖端基因组学、生物信息学和成像方法的研究人员，以小型会议形式分享他们的发现。会议还为青年教师和学生提供了展示他们发现的机会，60%的发言机会提供给博士后和研究生，资金将用于支持这些科学家参加培训。最后，海胆胚胎提供了一个强大的教育工具，会议支持来自主要本科院校的教师和他们的学生的旅行。我们将主持一个小组会议，讨论这些生物在K-12和本科教育中的应用。总而言之，这个奖项不仅将支持一个小而充满活力的科学家群体，他们致力于理解生物学中最复杂的问题之一：“卵子是如何发育成人类的？”同时也会培养下一代的发育生物学家。以及来自主要本科院校的支持教师和本科生。

The development of a fertilized egg into a fully-grown person relies on a basic toolkit of genes that are conserved in all animals. Identifying the components of the toolkit and understanding their function is not only essential for understanding human development, but also for understanding the diversity of body forms we find in nature. Humans share many genes with sea urchins, including those that turn on and off during embryonic development. Sea urchins, along with starfish, sea squirts and other marine invertebrates are therefore powerful models for studying development, because their embryos rapidly develop outside the mother, and also because they are closely related to vertebrates and humans. This conference brings together an international group of scientists and students that use sea urchins, sea stars and other invertebrates to study the basic mechanics and evolution of development. This conference brings together investigators applying cutting edge genomic, bioinformatic and imaging approaches to share their findings in a small meeting format. The meeting also provides opportunities for junior faculty and students to present their findings, with 60% of speaking slots offered to postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, and funds will be used to support the participation of these scientists in training. Lastly, sea urchin embryos provide a powerful educational tool, and the conference supports the travel of faculty and their students from primarily undergraduate institutions We will host a panel session on the use of these organisms in K-12 and undergraduate education. In summary, this award will not only support a small but vibrant community of scientists dedicated to understanding one of the most complex problems in biology, 'How does an egg develop into a human? but will also foster the next generation of developmental biologists. as well as supporting faculty and undergraduates from primarily undergraduate institutions.